Arrival of Chinese tourists with special visas in Phuket delayed to Oct 26

A near empty restaurant on Raway beach on Phuket. Hotels in Thailand’s most popular holiday island have been forced to slash prices with rooms left vacant and beaches sparse as tourist chiefs struggle with a plunge in visitors from China caused by the US trade war and stronger baht. Photo: AFP/Mladen Antonov. Sketched by the Pan Pacific Agency.

BANGKOK, Oct 10, 2020, Nation Thailand. A group of Chinese tourists travelling under the STV scheme will arrive at Phuket Airport on October 26 instead of October 8 as earlier scheduled, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports said, Nation Thailand reported.

According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), another group of 120 tourists from China’s Guangzhou city, who also will be issued special tourist visa (STV), will arrive at Suvarnabhumi Airport on October 20, Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said.

He explained that the delay in the arrival of visitors was because Phuket authorities wanted them to come after the Vegetarian Festival ends on October 25. This group also 120 tourists.Phiphat explained that both groups of Chinese would be subjected to alternative state quarantine for 14 days. The TAT will arrange activities for them during the quarantine period.

Phiphat said that he was confident the STV tourists would not be infected, and wanted the STV tourism to proceed to the second phase, which allows STV tourists to walk in other spaces of the quarantine hotels, apart from their rooms, after the first seven days of quarantine.

If infected persons were found among STV tourists, the operation will not proceed to the second phase, or even the third phase that would allow tourists to travel freely, if they are proved to be free from infection.

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